Bert and Ernie
by Bryan Greenberg
Summary: Logan shares his favorite episode of the Twilight Zone with Rory. Fluffy Sophie oneshot.


Disclaimer: I don't own Gilmore Girls.

**Bert and Ernie**

Rory smiled as she stepped out of the shower after washing away the grime of working as a candy striper that day and went to her closet to get dressed. It had been a long week and she was looking forward to a relaxing night with Logan. She hadn't seen him in a while as his first week of classes had been busy.

They were both pretty tired so it hadn't taken much convincing to get him to stay in for the night with takeout and DVDs. He'd pretended to be put out by the idea so she had allowed him to choose what they would watch as a consolation prize. She didn't really mind though. Logan usually had good taste, despite his affinity for _Who's the Boss_, and they had been taking turns exposing each other to new things throughout their relationship.

She'd just finished clothing herself in sweats and an old Harvard t-shirt and pulling her wet hair into a messy bun when she heard his car pulling into the driveway. She smiled to herself and pulled open the pool house door as he was raising his hand to knock.

He smirked at her, his eyes dancing. "Eager much, Ace?" he teased.

"For the Thai food in your hands? Absolutely," she responded, kissing him softly on the lips.

He followed her into the pool house and placed the bags of food and a boxed set of DVDs on the counter. She moved to get out plates and set out the food for their immediate consumption.

He looked her up and down before going to help her. "It's good to see you're not above dressing up for you man," he quipped while placing a serving spoon in each dish.

She rolled her eyes. "If you're good, I'll put my candy striper uniform back on later and we'll see what happens."

"I don't know," he said, as the two of them moved towards the coffee table in front of the TV, "I think I prefer the Chilton uniform."

Rory ignored his last comment and reached towards the DVDs he'd stuck under his arm while carrying plates of food to the table. "What are we watching?" she said, glancing at the DVDs. "_The Twilight Zone_," she answered for herself before nodding her approval, "Excellent mock potential."

"No, no," he said, "No mocking allowed. I want to show you my favorite episode of the Twilight Zone, ever. This is serious."

She looked at him with wide eyes. "You're telling me that we're watching _the Twilight Zone_. And I'm not allowed to mock it in any way? At all?" She questioned, not quite able to wrap her mind around the concept.

He rolled his eyes. "I think you can manage," he said, "I watched _the Office_ five times for you. You can watch one episode of _the Twilight Zone _without any smartass comments."

"I'm not sure that's true," she defended, "And you only watched _the Office _five times because you said I was right about the forth time rule and you'd promised. It seems unfair that you're holding that against me now."

Logan just looked her for a second before she huffed and said, "Ok, I guess I can try not to mock. I'm not sure how well it will take though. We'll have to watch another one after to I can get all that pent up mockage out."

He rolled his eyes. "Deal," he said, "Now let's eat."

Rory was glad to be eating as the episode started up. It gave her something to do with her mouth whenever she felt the urge to mock. She almost choked on obscenely large bites of food more than once.

But as the episode continued and she got more into the love story of Commander Douglas Stansfield and Sandra Horn, her desire to laugh diminished and she found herself getting emotional.

As the episode was ending Rory glanced up at Logan from the spot in his arms that she'd moved into when they finished eating. His face was serious and completely enthralled. She could see in his eyes how much he loved the episode and it was completely endearing.

As the credits began to roll, he looked at her, anticipating a reaction.

"I liked it," she said, "It's definitely not what I would have expected to be you favorite episode."

He grinned. "If you ever tell the guys that it is, they'll never find your body," he said. She laughed. "But, seriously," he continued, "It's just…that's true love. You don't see it very often on TV. It's true unconditional love."

Rory's breath caught in her throat. It took everything she had not to tell him she loved him right them. But he wasn't ready to hear that yet, and, if she was honest with herself, she wasn't quite ready to say it. But it was there, hovering under the surface, and when he said something like that it was hard for her to resist the urge to just blurt it out.

She needed something to release the tension. She had to say something that wasn't 'I love you.'

"It's like that episode of _Sesame Street_," she said, finally.

He looked at her like she was crazy. "_Sesame Street_?" he asked.

"You know," she explained, "The one where Bert sells his paper clip collection to buy Ernie a soap dish for Rubber Duckie and Ernie sells Rubber Duckie to buy a cigar box to hold Bert's paper clip collection. They both make sacrifices for the other that end up being meaningless except that they love each other."

Logan couldn't help but laugh. "You know that's the story of the Gift of the Magi?" he asked, "It's an O Henry story."

Rory rolled her eyes. "Thank you Logan," she said sarcastically, "Because, having gotten into Yale, Harvard, and Princeton, I had no idea what the Gift of the Magi is."

"You were the one who was talking about _Sesame Street_," he defended.

"Well, yes," Rory said, "I chose to use the Bert and Ernie example because they were lovers so it fit better."

Logan looked scandalized. "Bert and Ernie were not lovers," he insisted, "They were best friends. They didn't even share a bed. There's no way they were lovers."

Rory smiled patronizingly. "For the kids," she explained, "They couldn't have them sharing a bed on a kids TV show, but the subtext was all there."

"What subtext?" Logan asked, "They were just friends. No subtext. Thanks Rory. Now I'll never be able to watch _Sesame Street_ again."

"Now, Logan," Rory stated, "There's no need for homophobia. They were just two cartoons in love, male or female doesn't matter. Bert and Ernie's love is true, just like Douglas and Sandra.

**End**

**AN- **If you read my stories you're probably thinking why oh why is this a oneshot and not an update to any of three stories that haven't been updated in like two months. But I promise you, this story is a good sign. It got me in a writing mood again. So, with the exception of _Mending My Shattered World_, you can expect updates this week.


End file.
